I've noticed some 459 questions tagged hello-world and I was wondering if this is really a necessary tag.

It doesn't tell anything much about that the question except that it is from a beginner to the language or framework. I don't think it really serves any purpose for searching since all of the questions use different languages and nobody is really an expert in 'hello-world' programs. Thoughts?

Through it has 12 followers, all top answerers just have 1 post in the tag, nobody will miss it.
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BraiamMay 10 '14 at 12:38

Are we burning this or not, Im ready to get my blow torch out :)
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Ashley MedwayMay 10 '14 at 20:37

I'm all for it, although I don't really know the process for deciding this.
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connorMay 10 '14 at 20:39

I've never used it, and just found a link to this post in the community bulletin. This may have been said before in a different context but why not keep it for absolute noobs? If it is a hello-world example, and it is something simple, then once answered, re-tag the question and remove it. Leave the tag in initially in order to help the newby get over their first issue. If it is that simple, it should be quick to sort.
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MikeMay 11 '14 at 13:48

2

@Mike each and every attempt to use a tag to figure out the knowledge level of the asker has been shut down. And seriously, I agree with that.
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BraiamMay 11 '14 at 23:50

I suppose it could possibly be useful for someone who is learning a new language and just wants to compile a minimal code snippet. But then you would have to search for two tags at once, for example c and hello-world.
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LundinMay 13 '14 at 9:25

7 Answers
7

All questions about "hello world" should have used their respective languages tags instead, most of them are, some I'm not even sure in what language they want to be written and more are about convoluted hello world where there are more than 3 languages involved (I was sure hello world programs should be simple, apparently I was wrong).

Can you be a Hello World expert? No, you can't.Does somebody want to follow the Hello World tag? No, they don't want that as they get lots of questions about other languages.Does a question relate to Hello World ever? No, it relates to a specific problem inside a Hello World script.Does Hello world adds anything valuable to the question? No.

I remember seeing a discussion one time about the smallest hello world application possible. But that's the only real use case I can think of for it. Other than those two, there's really no use for it that I could see. Haha, here it is. These are near the top of the votes tab.

I used the hello world tag in one of my latest questions. Yes, of course, it was a beginner question. But in my opinion, this tag was useful as it explicitly indicated that the question dealt with a basic setup. When you cannot run an 'hello world', it's really very frustrating. And a little help could be useful in these situations.

So I would keep the 'hello world' tag, but I would also suggest to use some other language or framework specific tag together with it.

A 'Hello world' is not always just one simple line of code. In my situation, I had to figure out how to setup Xcode with Cordova and a specific version of iOS. This is still an hello world...
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YakoMay 13 '14 at 12:00

6

your question was the one that actually made me think about removing this tag. While it's still a good question, the hello-world tag doesn't really help. People who are familiar with xcode, phonegap, and ios may be able to help you, but there isn't a hello-world expert who could solve your problem. Although the tag fit your question, the problem was with the tag, not your question
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connorMay 13 '14 at 14:37

It is pretty redundant to have a "Hello World" tag. Honestly, it shouldn't even be a question. The first thing you learn in a language is how to print a line of text. How would this type of question help anyone?

Imagine if for each language (and version) and tool chain (and version) and platform (also tagged), there was a [tag:hello world] post that detailed how to install that tool chain, write a program that displays "Hello world" on the screen, then build/compile/run that program. In painstaking detail.

If you need to get php up and running on apache on a red hat linux server and display "hello world", such a post would solve your problem.

One could develop expertise in this area (writing good answers that describe each step required), searching for it makes sense (if I need to get some language up and running, looking for the 'hello world' makes sense).

I could think of a different name for the tag than hello-world, but none would be as awesome.